A replica of Algie the pig floating above Battersea Power Station in 2011 (via Flickr/Neill Sharp)

Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.

The inflatable pig that appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd‘s Animals (1977) was withdrawn from auction. “Algie” was touted as the star lot for a sale of iconic stage props produced by Air Artists. The company decided to offer Algie to the band before the sale. The upcoming auction, organized by Durrants, includes several other iconic Pink Floyd inflatables, including the school master from The Wall (1979).

Sotheby’s will sell the art collection of its former owner, A. Alfred Taubman, later this year. Taubman, who passed away in April, was jailed for his role in the commission-fixing scandal between Sotheby’s and Christie’s. The collection includes works by Modigliani, Picasso, and Gainsborough.

Research by a UK pressure group, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, concluded that the government only displays about 3% of its art collection nationwide.

The British Museum will loan objects and host a series of exhibitions for the La Caixa banking foundation in Spain. The Art Newspaper reported that the bank is expected to pay the museum around €2 million (~$2.2 million) in loan fees.

A woman from South Korea on a fully funded scholarship began her MFA at the USC’s Roski School of Art and Design — the only student enrolled in the program this semester. The school’s entire first-year MFA class dropped out last May in protest over the school’s “unethical treatment of its students.” A petition demanding the removal of the school’s Dean, Erica Muhl, currently has over 850 signatures.

The original facade of the first Whitney Museum of American Art (prior to its restoration), located on 8 West Eighth Street (photo by Instagram/@michaelferguson) (click to enlarge)

NYU removed Bill Cosby’s name from the title of their Future Fillmmakers Workshop, a program for high school students.

Brooklyn property blog Brownstoner reported that the house at 104 Central Avenue in Bushwick — appreciated by locals for its mural facade of the neighborhood — was sold for $1,285,000. The seller, Jeremy Sapienza, is also closing his cafe business. “We’re closing because I haven’t made a dime in two years,” Sapienza told Brownstoner. “Bushwick is a nightmare on earth full of obnoxious yuppie brats, and I’m tired. Maybe that’s not a nice angle, haha.”

Casa Vicens (1888), the first house designed by Antoni Gaudí, will open as a museum in Fall 2016.

Jeff Koons’s “Pluto and Proserpina” (2010–13) will go on display beside the replica of Michelangelo’s “David” outside of Palazzo Vecchio later this month.

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden dismantled an art work inspired by Hurricane Sandy without informing the artist. “I fell to my knees,” Roderick Romero told the Daily News. “I was just devastated, embarrassed and shocked.”

Author Frederick Forsyth, best known for his thriller The Day of the Jackal (1971), revealed that he worked for MI6 for over 20 years.

Transactions

A study by Chmura Economics and Analytics concluded that the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts generated $145 million for the state of Virginia during the 2014 fiscal year.

Artist Jean-Marc Bustamante was appointed the new director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. French culture minister Fleur Pellerin fired the former director, curator and theorist Nicolas Bourriaud, in July. Bourriaud’s termination led to accusations of political nepotism in the French press.